Nothing Is As It Seems
by SilverFoxOath
Summary: Not everything is easy. Reincarnation is among the hardest to deal with. OC/Self-Insert
1. It begins

Death, I would like to point out, is actually rather comforting and painless. I don't quite remember when and how it happened, but I died. That's not important, what is important is /after/ I died. The first thing I really became aware of after death was this weird tingling in my chest, near my heart. It wasn't a painful tingle, just different.

The second thing I was aware of was three people standing over me, well I say people, it was more like people shaped blobs. Apparently not even dying can correct my vision. Anyway, back to the people, they were cooing at me like I was some kind of- 'wait, really, AM I A SNOT NOSED BRAT?' A quick semi stable glance at myself reveals that yes, I am in fact an infant. So in typical baby fashion I flail like the damned.

The higher voiced blob, who I assume is my mother, picks me up shushing me "Hush Harry, Mum's here, hush little Harry." 'Harry, Harry who? Wait isn't Harry a boys name? AM I A BOY?' My thoughts race, slightly disjointedly. But due to my baby body and constitution, I quickly am lulled into a dreamless sleep.


	2. Awoken, too late

I woke up slowly, the tingling in my chest fading as conciousness returns. My eyelids rise and flutter, relaying my sleepyness. I yawn widely, before opening my eyes for good. Again standing over me are the three from before, but they look exhuasted, yet joyful to see me.

Deciding to fully embrace the baby life I giggle, reaching for the female, babbling like the infant I am. Unable to help it, the three coo, whispering to each other "Look at him. He's adorable." "I know right? Lils and I made the best baby ever" "Yes we did, James, yes we did." One of the males moves closer picking me up and cradling me, whispering to me "Oh Harry you are the best god-child I could be sworn to." I giggle even more, thinking to myself 'Ooh, he has a nice voice, I wonder who he is, aside from my godfather...'

He jokingly pretends to run away with me, only to stop short at my mothers yell, "Sirius Orion Black, just where do you think you are going with /my/ baby boy?" That yell freezes my insides, the tingling thathad faded coming back only to turn sharp and hurtful. I whine, unmoving, wanting to be warm and happy again. The now named Lils walks out of the room, heading downstairs to the kitchen if I am hearing correctly. Sirius rocks me slowly, but unlike before I am not sent into a nice slumber.

No, instead my thoughts race out of control, putting the information together 'If I am Harry and he is Sirius Black, said he was my godfather, that means I have to be /the/ Harry Potter! Well crap, I hope Saxi will find me. She promised that if we die we will find each other in our next lives.' The last male, who I now assume is James Potter also known as my father, walks over to where Sirius is holding my fussing body.

"Let me have him," James, who I will now refer to as Dad, says to Sirius "he gets a bit fussy when woken up early." Dad takes me from Sirius' arms, laying me onto a blanket on the floor. Dad glances at the stairs before /changing/ into a beautiful stag, he lays next to me, snuffling at my hair like hes giving me a kiss. I giggle, lightly trying to pet him, but sadly I am an uncoordinated baby, so I end up lightly slapping him. He doesnt seem to mind though, playing with my unruly hair.

Almost forgotten by me, Sirius gives a bark of laughter, pulling out what looks like a camera and snapping a photo of Dad and I laying together on the blanket. Dads ears perk up and he gains a panicked look, changing back to human just as Lily, now Mum, walks in. She gives a knowing grin and says "James, did you transform for Harry again?" Of course Dad, with all his years experience, tries to lie to Mum with an unconvincing "Nope! Wasn't me. I was just sitting here playing with Harry, right Sirius?"

Sirius gives a shit eating grin watching as Mum gives Dad a headslap for lying to her. She picks me up and cradles me, feeding me the bottle full of warm milk as a snack. The milk ends the hurtful tingling, aking me happy and warm again. I finish off the milk, babbling nonsensical words as I am burped.

Again I start to feel sleepy, but I stare beggingly at Sirius, mentally pleading "C'mon Papapa, change into Padfoot for me. Please!' He seems to read my mind because, with a sigh, he changes into an adorable shaggy dog, laying on the floor. I laugh and reach for him, saying "Papapa." Mum puts me down on the carpeted floor. I wobbly stand up and tottle over to Padfoot. I clumsily pat his fur, chanting, "Papapa, Papapa." over and over again. After what feels like forever, but was really a couple minutes, I stop, fall down onto my butt and lay on Padfoot, dosing off like I had done it a million times before, which I very well may have.

The rest of the month passes much the same, the only changes being me speaking fuller sentences and wobbling less while I am walking. One thing I did notice over time, was the calender in the corner of my room. It was August when I first /woke/ up. Now though it has changed into September, reminding me of the coming horror.

In light of that revelation I have been a fussy brat when I know my parents aren't busy. Wanting to spend as much time as I could with them. I know it must have annoyed them, but they never let it show in front of me, they always had a smile ready, always willing to do easy tricks with their wands.

Another thing I realized is that we had a cat slinking around our house, it was a pretty cat, I'm not sure what gender or breed it was, but it let me pet it when it decided to enter my domain. Sirius always seemed to be over, ready to entertain me, ready to pull pranks, generally being a hellion.

Like one time Dad got me a child's flying broomstick, not expecting me to know how to use it. I pranked him and Mum by getting on the broomstick and gliding around like a madman, breaking a vase and scaring our poor cat. Mum and Dad were chasing me around, Mum to get me to stop and Dad to praise me for my talent at riding. Or course I had sneakily gotten Sirius to come over at the right time to capture a picture of that fun moment.

Sadly though Sirius started slowly lowering his appearences at our house, making me cry more than once, missing him. In his place came Peter, who I never really liked, a voice in the back of my mind yelled that he wasn't right. He had changed. I trusted that voice and tried not to be left alone with Peter, fearing death if he were to have me for long periods of time. As the month slowly passed, I started growing fussier, basically demanding hugs and attention every night.

August ended, and with it my hope for my parents survival also died. With October, came my terrible temper tantrums, complete with accidental magic. One time I accidentally managed to give my Dad antlers from his Animagus form. Another time I managed to change my hair color from black to a lovely shade of purple. Also with October came the fact that no one visited, not even Peter. I started getting twitchier for every day that passed, sending my magic into a tempest, making more accidents happen.

Finally the day I had been dreading finally arrived, All Hallows Eve, Halloween, the saddest day of my new life. With the rising sun, my magic was more stormy than ever, clouding my attempts at playing the perfect baby for my parents last day. Strangely enough I received a present that day, I'm not sure who it is from. It's an orange stuffed fox, with no note, no message. It just appeared when I woke up that cursed day. I clutched it close, trying not to fuss loudly.

I count the hours, petting my new toy, playing the worst waiting game of my new life. The little voice in the back of my mind whispered warning and danger as the sky slowly darkened, bringing darkness upon my little family. I hugged the fox to myself, crying silently as the front door is blasted off its hinges.

He's here.


	3. All Hallows Eve

He's here. My mind blanks, my body however starts screaming and wailing like the damned. The little voice in my head screeching DANGER! DANGER! RUN! HIDE! Through all the noise I here a thump that chills me to the bone and further, it made me feel as the effects of dementors are described, as if I would never be cheerful again. Mum bolts into my room, shutting the door and picking me up, fox toy and all. She's desperately shushing me, rocking me back and forth while she panics.

She murmers something in what I think is Latin, brushing a finger over my forehead in a certain way, almost like shes drawing something. I finally quiet down, mentally demanding myself to stop crying and bear witness to my Mum's last moments. The door of my room is flung open, startling me so badly that I scream. He enters, gliding along the floor like a ghost. Strangely he looks more like Tom than Voldemort, but I guess rituals have something to do with that.

"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!" My Mum begs standing protectively in front of me, glowing with something ethereal and vaguely familiar. Lord Voldemort just laughs, saying "Stand aside, you silly girl... stand aside now..." I whine in distress, worried even though I know what will happen. My Mum continues to beg "Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead-" He seems to be annoyed, saying one last time "Stand aside you foolish girl."

Again she refuses with "Not Harry! Please... have mercy... have mercy..."

He gives a bone chilling laugh, raising his wand and sinisterly saying "Avada Kedarva!" The green light fills the room as my eyes close reflexively, right before she is hit my Mum screams something that causes the tingling in me to increase. The evil green light fades, granting me my vision again.

I stare at Voldemort, taking in his red eyes, his black robes, his oddly young face, his yew and phoenix feather wand. He in turn takes me in, my green eyes filled with knowledge and tears, my orange fox toy, my onesie with horizontal stripes, and my messy black hair. He snorts saying to me "As if a baby could stop me, Lord Voldemort." He raises his wand at me as I glare at him.

"Avada Kedarva!" He curses me, the evil green light making a return and speeding towards me. I glare at him, willing my self to live just to spite him and continue the Potter family line. Of course just as the evil light hits me I blink and cry out. The light burns me with all the passion of a sun across my forehead and I hear his shrill voice scream profanity as something goes wrong with the spell, reflecting it onto him.

I wrench open my eyes just in time to see his body dissolve into nothing more than black smoke, his wand clattering to the ground with his robes following, the wall behind him groaning before falling out into the yard. I watch as the black smoke seems to glance at me before fleeing out the blown open wall, flying away from the scene before even the first responders arrive.

It's over.

I blink tiredly before focusing on my Mum's body. I start crying like the baby I am, mourning the family I barely even knew. A crack like a backfiring car comes from outside, it startles me into screaming enough to rouse the dead. Footsteps pound as someone runs up the stairs. The unknown runs in and goes straight to Mum's body.

Finally with their face in the light I can see that the unknown is Severus Snape. He mourns for a couple minutes holding Mum's body before disappearing as he arrived, suddenly and with a crack like a backfiring car. Minutes go by as I sniffle and hug my fox toy.

The sound of a motorcycle comes from outside, heralding the arrival of someone. That someone seems to notice the devastation because I can hear them shouting in a very familiar voice "James? LILY?" Figuring that it would be best if someone found me sooner than later I scream as loudly as my little body can stand.

Apparently it was loud enough because again I hear footsteps, but these sound sadder they pause just before the stair case, their owner crying over Dad's body for a moment. The person runs up the stairs, not even pausing before bursting into my room. I look up at the person only to relax as I see it is my godfather. He glances at Mum's body, mourning for a second before focusing on me.

"Harry!" He yells, happy to see that I am alive. He picks me up, fox toy clutched tightly in my hands. He rocks me gently as he starts to walk, taking me out of my room and down the stairs. I smile sadly at him, whispering "Luv Papapa." He holds me closer, a parody of a hug. We continue walking until we are out of the house.

Right as we exit the house I hear a whisper from the voice in my head Danger! Unsafe. Bad things will happen. Seconds later Sirius stiffens for an unknown reason. "Papapa?" I question, shifting a little. Someone approaches us from behind, saying to Sirius "Give the boy to Hagrid and go after the rat." Sirius nods swiftly, his hold on my switching to something more mechanical and unfeeling.

Someone approaches from across the street, his heavy footsteps echoing across my hearing. Sirius, under the control of another hands me to the owner of the heavy footsteps, saying "I have to catch a rat, here use my bike." I distantly hear the crack of apparation as my godfather leaves me for parts unknown. Someone else approaches the heavy footstep owner, saying "Meet us here." before handing over what I guess is a map, judging by the crinkling. The person disapperates with no further words.

"Great man, Dumbledore." The owner of the heavy footsteps says, changing how he was holding me just enough for me to see his face. Hagrid grins down at me, walking over to Sirius' abandoned bike and mounting it. He adjusts me to a more comfortable and safe position to ride a motorcycle.

He looks over the bike before laughing and starting it. He revs the bike and away we go, down the street. My only view is of Hagrid, so I startle when we start to gain altitude. I turn my head to watch the stars and in between one heartbeat and the next I drift away.


End file.
